Watch: Scotland heroes present brave Aiden Paterson with top player award

Young Aiden Paterson met Scotland heroes Steven Fletcher and Charlie Mulgrew after being named player of the tournament at EKRR Rolls Royce holiday weekend tournament.

The award for Aiden’s brilliant performances for Claremont 2011s came just days after it was revealed his dad Alan – the former East Kilbride Thistle boss – had tragically passed away (see page 3)

Youth Football Scotland said: “Not only did Aiden show incredible courage to just turn up, but he put in an outstanding display, and was awarded player of the tournament.”

A mix-up with how the tournament is structured meant Claremont didn’t win it outright, despite playing very well.

But coach Chris Anderson was just delighted to see Aiden playing with a smile on his face.

He said: “Aiden’s mum phoned us on the Thursday and asked if he could come and train with us, which took us by surprise.

“We thought we’d maybe not see him for a good few weeks.

Young Aiden collected the prize from former Scotland stars Steven Fletcher (left) and Charlie Mulgrew (Chris Anderson)

“But he came in and had a smile on his face again. I think this is helping him through it.

“Even then, we still didn’t expect him to turn up

on the Saturday for the tournament, but he was absolutely fantastic.

“It’s an incredible level of courage from the lad just to turn up, after something like that.

“It showed character. To turn up and do that showed incredible courage from him, even to play football with his mates.

“But that’s just the type of wee lad he is. Aiden has been fantastically brave.”

On the tournament, Chris said: “It went very well for the boys. They had five games, won four of them, scoring 17 goals without reply.

Aiden's dad Alan, a former East Kilbride Thistle boss, tragically passed away suddenly last week, aged 44 (Stuart Vance/ReachPlc)

“We thought we had already won it, so we changed the team for the last game and got beat 1-0.

“But they had changed the structure of the tournament, so somebody else got the actual trophy! We were by far the best team, and Aiden was a stand-out, as you can imagine.”

A fundraiser has been organised by friends for Alan’s family and is at: shorturl.at/flMT7

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